Forza Horizon

When it comes to racing games, Turn 10 Creative Director Dan Greenawalt doesn’t buy the whole arcade vs. simulation issue. He doesn’t see the two as distinct, antagonistic genres. One isn’t better than the other. A racer is a racer, he said, it’s just the motivation that’s different.

That’s how he reconciled Forza Horizon as being part of the Forza brand despite its new open-world approach. “The series has always been about bringing gamer culture and car culture together,” Greenawalt said at a recent demo in San Francisco. “There’s the quality, innovation, social features to get them talking.”

That essential dialogue is in the overriding DNA of the series, and after playing Forza Horizon for more than an hour, Greenawalt makes a convincing argument that it exists in this spin-off.

The past 13 months were bad for racing game fans. Two of the best developers in the genre closed their doors. Bizarre Creations, which made Blur and Project Gotham Racing, was shuttered. After that, Black Rock Studios, the creator of Split/Second and Pure, followed suit. With the dissolution of these teams, there was a lot of talent out there.

At the same time, Turn 10 was looking to expand its Forza franchise. That misfortune and that opportunity intersected at Playground Games. Started by four former Codemaster developers, the team embarked on creating their own racing game and shared the same vision and enthusiasm for autoracing as Turn 10. The initial core quickly grew as it picked up team members from the shuttered U.K. companies.

The result of their collective work is an upcoming spin-off called Forza Horizon. Not much is known about the project other than it’s coming this fall. But with top talent from those big studios, this game can easily be a top-tier racing title. It’s almost like the Miami Heat of racing developers.